State Agency Finding Aid: Administration, 1941-1958

In 1923 the state auditor recommended the creation of a Department of Administration to perform administrative fiscal functions for the governor, to provide services for other state agencies, and to promote uniformity and cohesiveness in the state's organization. Although this recommendation was not fully implemented, the 1925 General Assembly enacted the state's first Executive Budget Act and established a Budget Bureau within the Office of the Governor to assist the governor as director of the budget in administering the state's fiscal and budgetary operations. At the height of the Great Depression in 1930, Governor O. Max Gardner engaged the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., for advice on increasing efficiency and economy in the state's conduct of governmental affairs. In a proposal similar to the state auditor's report, the Brookings Institution recommended a Department of Administration to consolidate all services having to do with the operation of the government as an institution. While the General Assembly of 1931 did not establish this department as recommended, it centralized purchasing functions under a new Division of Purchase and Contract within the Office of the Governor. In 1933 the General Assembly placed state government personnel functions under the authority of the Budget Bureau, supervised by the assistant director of the budget, where it remained until a separate State Personnel Department was formed in 1949. The 1953-1955 Commission on Reorganization of State Government studied the possibility of consolidating into a single department the separate agencies and divisions that handled the functions of accounting, budgeting, building maintenance, and personnel administration for state government as a whole. However, the commission concluded that creation of a department consolidating these functions would not result in reductions in staff nor in reduced operating costs. The commission's successor concluded that although creation of a Department of Administration would not produce savings, its establishment was justified in terms of freeing the governor from numerous administrative details, thus allowing his office to focus on long-range planning and the citizens' interests in the state potential. The commission also recommended creation of a Division of General Services within the department to assume responsibility for centralized services involving buildings and grounds maintenance, communications, and transportation services for state agencies in the Raleigh area. In 1957 Governor Luther H. Hodges supported the recommendations of the reorganization commission and the General Assembly responded with legislation creating a Department of Administration, effective 1 July 1957. The Department of Administration (DOA) was to provide for a more effective administration of the governor's responsibilities and to perform management and administrative services for the other departments, commissions, boards, and other agencies of state government. The department was placed under a director appointed by and directly responsible to the governor. It was to consist initially of a Budget Division and a Purchase and Contract Division, both with duties transferred from their predecessors formerly under the Office of the Governor. The law authorized other divisions that included, but were not limited to Property Control and Disposition, Architecture and Engineering, Administrative Analysis, and Long-Range Planning. Subject to the governor's approval, the director was authorized to organize and reorganize the department and all its divisions and to abolish any of the divisions, except those of Budget and Purchase and Contract. In separate legislation passed just before passage of the Department of Administration Act, the 1957 General Assembly abolished the Board of Public Buildings and Grounds and the office of the superintendent of public buildings and grounds, and transferred their functions to a General Services Division under the Office of the Governor, pending passage of the Department of Administration Act. Once that act was implemented, the governor and Council of State transferred the General Services Division to the Department of Administration, where it had responsibility for the physical plants and grounds of state buildings within the city of Raleigh. It was also assigned responsibility for the State Capitol Police and for the Central Motor Pool that provided transportation for state employees authorized to travel on state business. During that period the department also was given responsibility for overseeing the maintenance of other state facilities, such as the Confederate Woman's Home in Fayetteville, established by the General Assembly in 1913. By the beginning of the 1960s, the DOA consisted of four divisions authorized by the 1957 legislation: Budget, Purchase and Contract, Property Control, and General Services. In September 1964, Governor Terry Sanford recommended that a Long-Range Planning Division be activated as previously authorized, with authority to coordinate state participation in federal programs. In April 1965, Sanford's successor, Governor Dan K. Moore, established a State Planning Task Force to help the state assert leadership and initiative in the administration of federal programs and legislation, including the federal Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965. Title V of that act authorized the creation of regional development commissions, and in late 1966 the U.S. secretary of commerce designated 159 counties in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia as the Coastal Plains Economic Development Region. In July 1967, a Coastal Plains Regional Commission was established by joint federal-state action to identify development needs of the eastern portions of those states and to recommend action to stimulate orderly economic growth. Federal legislation in 1965 also authorized the Appalachian Regional Commission, and the task force was instrumental in North Carolina's involvement in the related Appalachian Regional Development Program, which included efforts to stimulate development in twenty-nine counties of the state's mountain region. In early 1968 Moore announced that the State Planning Task Force had been reestablished as a new State Planning Division within the DOA, and attributed the task force's division status to its important role in the Appalachian and the Coastal Plains programs. Under Moore's successor, Governor Robert W. Scott, the division was reorganized early in 1969 as the Division of State Planning and Development and strengthened to serve the state's long-range planning and development needs. The division was to coordinate the planning efforts of the state's major agencies, and to provide information on statewide goals, policies, and means of implementation to the executive and legislative branches. Early in his administration in 1969, Scott also announced the formation of a Data Processing and Information Systems Section, which was subsequently upgraded to a Systems Management Division; an Administrative Management Analysis Division; and an Office of State- Federal Relations. Initially, the Data Processing and Information Systems Section was to assist the director of administration in developing and implementing a statewide plan designed to guide all agencies and institutions under state purview in developing systems for automated data processing, information, and data communications consonant with the needs of state government. The Administrative Management Analysis Division was to provide staff assistance to the governor and Advisory Budget Commission, conduct studies and perform in-depth analyses of budgets and state programs. The Office of State- Federal Relations was to serve as the executive branch's key contact with federal agencies and programs, to maintain liaison with federal and local governments, and to provide information to other state agencies about pending federal legislation and programs. Other functions of the Office of State-Federal Relations included administration of a State Clearinghouse for federal grant applications, and programs for land and water conservation, environmental education, and beautification. The latter program had grown out of the Governor's Advisory Committee on Beautification, initially established by Dan Moore in 1966 to coordinate a variety of activities intended to protect and enhance the natural beauty of the state. By the Executive Organization Act of 1971, the DOA was re-created, reestablished, and placed under the supervision of a cabinet-level secretary appointed by the governor. The previous divisions of DOA remained virtually the same except that Budget was renamed the Division of Budget and Management, and Systems Management was renamed the Office of State Management Systems. All statutory powers of the previous department and its director were transferred to the new department and the following agencies came under the statutory authority of the DOA and its secretary: the Marine Science Council, the Good Neighbor Council (later the Human Relations Commission), the Commission on the Education and Employment of Women (later the Council on the Status of Women), the Youth Advisory Board, the State Youth Council, and the Southern Interstate Nuclear Compact. Agencies that were placed under the department for administrative and personnel purposes but retained their previous statutory powers included the following: the Capital Building Authority, Capital Planning Commission, the North Carolina Housing Corporation, the State Personnel Board and Department, and the North Carolina Zoological Authority. In separate legislation, the 1971 General Assembly authorized a Council on State Goals and Policy and scheduled it for activation in March 1972. In 1973 the Governor's Efficiency Study Commission recommended that the North Carolina Zoological Authority and the Environmental Education and Beautification Program be transferred to the Department of Natural Resources and Economic Resources. While the 1973 General Assembly transferred the Zoological Authority as recommended, it designated the DOA and its secretary to administer the Environmental Education and Information Act of 1973. The act called for establishment of a program to promote and support environmental education throughout the state and specified that the secretary of administration coordinate all related activities with the environmental problems and priorities established by the Council on State Goals and Policy. In 1975 the General Assembly re-created and reestablished the DOA, in completion of the reorganization of state government as directed by the Executive Organization Act of 1973. The 1975 act authorized the DOA to provide additional support services other state agencies might need in order to operate efficiently and effectively. The major divisions of the DOA remained virtually the same, except that the name of the Office of State-Federal Relations was changed to the Division of Intergovernmental Relations. However, several boards, commissions, and councils were renamed and several were re-created. Among these, the Council on State Goals and Policy was replaced by the State Goals and Policy Board. The board's duties included expressing the needs of the state's citizens in the form of goals proposed for state action, studying the resources and means of action available to the state, and proposing a suggested timetable within which these goals might be achieved. In other action, the 1975 General Assembly upgraded the State Personnel Board to a commission directly responsible to the governor, and reestablished the State Personnel Department as an office independent of the secretary of administration, yet located administratively within the DOA. In October 1975 Governor James E. Holshouser, Jr., announced that an Office of Administrative Analysis had replaced the Office of Administrative Management Analysis and was operating as the first office had been intended, as a systems and budget study organization and as a watchdog for all of state government. This change was in response to a recommendation of the 1973 Governor's Efficiency Study Commission. During the same period, an Office of Fiscal Management was established to handle internal operations, accounting for and administering all fiscal activity within the DOA in accordance with state and federal requirements. In 1977 the General Assembly transferred the Division of Veterans Affairs from the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs to the DOA, where it was placed under the authority of the department and under the supervision of an assistant secretary of veterans affairs. In separate action, the Commission of Indian Affairs was transferred to the department, where it retained its previously granted statutory powers and came under the supervision of the assistant secretary of personnel and programs. Among other legislation relating to the DOA that year, the General Assembly established the Agency for Public Telecommunications within the DOA and charged the agency and department with working together to coordinate all telecommunications matters within state government. By executive order of Governor James B. Hunt, Jr., in 1977, the state-local coordinating functions of the former Division of Intergovernmental Relations were transferred to the Department of Natural and Economic Resources. During that year, a Division of Policy Development was established by DOA administrative directive and placed under the supervision of an assistant secretary of policy and management. The new division was created out of elements of the former divisions of State Planning and Intergovernmental Relations and was to include the Office of Administrative Analysis. The Division of Policy Development was linked closely with the Division of State Budget and Management. However, in 1979 the latter office was transferred by executive order of Governor James B. Hunt, Jr., to the Office of the Governor, along with the State Clearinghouse. The State Clearinghouse was transferred back to the DOA in 1982. During that period the name of the Division of Policy Development was changed to the Office of Policy and Planning, and was called the Division of Policy and Planning by 1985. In 1979 Hunt had proposed and the General Assembly enacted the Balanced Growth Policy Act to establish a partnership of state and local governments to attract good jobs, provide needed public services, and also protect the environment. To implement that policy, Hunt announced that the State Goals and Policy Board and the Local Government Advocacy Council, established by executive order in 1977, were to function jointly as the state's interim Balanced Growth Board. The board, which was to receive staff support from the DOA, was charged with reviewing state policies for consistency with the balanced growth initiatives and for consistency with state-local government partnership policies. By the latter half of the 1970s most of the DOA's divisions and programs which did not have independent status had been grouped administratively under assistant secretaries. The assistant secretary of government operations supervised the divisions of General Services, Management Systems, Purchase and Contract, and the offices of State Property and State Construction. As assistant secretary of personnel and programs supervised the Office of Marine Affairs and programs including but not limited to Human Relations, Status of Women, Youth Involvement, and Commission of Indian Affairs. By the early 1980s, the latter programs for groups of citizens who had traditionally been underrepresented in state government, were placed under an assistant secretary of advocacy programs. During that period the Governor's Advocacy Council for Persons with Disabilities was one of the programs added. Also during that period, the Office of Marine Affairs was moved administratively and placed directly under the jurisdiction of the secretary of administration. During the early 1980s, the assistant secretaries of advocacy programs and government operations were redesignated as deputy secretaries. In January 1985 the programs classified as government operations were reorganized by administrative directive. While these services continued under a deputy secretary of government operations, a Division of Auxiliary Services was created to replace the former Division of General Services and was given administrative authority over a variety of programs including Courier Service, Federal Surplus Property, State Surplus Property, Motor Fleet Management (formerly Central Motor Pool), and the State Capitol Police. Later in the decade, a Division of Facility Management was formed from the Division of Auxiliary Services to provide preventive maintenance and repair to the state government complex, and Motor Fleet Management was made a separate division. In 1981 the Office of State Management Systems, formerly under the assistant secretary of government operations, was reorganized as the Division of State Management Services with direct responsibility to the secretary of administration. The division worked in cooperation with the State Computer Center which acted as a service bureau for other agencies. In 1982 the division was reorganized as the State Information Processing Services (SIPS) and it, along with the State Computer Center, existed as an independent unit within the DOA. In 1986 the General Assembly created the Office of the State Controller to provide control over the expenditure and disbursement of state funds on a statewide basis. It was located administratively within the DOA, but authorized to exercise its powers independently of the secretary of administration. By executive order of Governor James G. Martin in 1987, SIPS and the State Computer Center were transferred to the Office of the State Controller. During the same period, the DOA formed an internal Division of Management Information Systems to develop integrated data processing plans and to provide assistance within the department. By the late 1980s, the DOA was involved in a number of efforts to improve management practices and to increase productivity within the the department and throughout state government. Its programs included the Government Executive Institute for Management to train top-level managers in skills and knowledge needed to perform their duties; and the State Employee Suggestion System, to encourage the submission of money- saving ideas by offering cash awards directly to employees. By the early 1990s, training for top-level managers was conducted through the DOA's Office of Personnel and Staff Development which also provides a range of services for the DOA, its various boards, as well as the Office of the Lieutenant Governor and the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management Authority. In 1987 the Office of Intergovernmental Relations had been transferred back to DOA from the Department of Natural Resources and Community Development. By administrative directive during the early 1990s, Intergovernmental Relations was replaced by the Division of State and Local Government Affairs and placed under the supervision of the deputy secretary of government operations. The division works with local governments and their regional organizations, coordinates project reviews required by the state and federal Environmental Protection Acts, and operates a project notification, review, and comment system to provide information to state and local agencies and the public about projects supported with public funds. REFERENCES: P.L., 1913, c. 62. P.L., 1925, c. 89. P.L., 1931, cc. 261, 396, 479. S.L., 1949, c. 718. S.L., 1957, cc. 215, 269. S.L., 1969, Executive Order No. 2, 25 March 1969. S.L., 1971, cc. 864, s. 12, s. 15(31); 838. S.L., 1973, c. 619. S.L., 1975, cc. 667, 879. 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